Archidemo - Potential of the 2D Image within Virtual Space

I took a moment to visit an interesting variety of builds representing the work of Hidenori Watanave and the Archidemo group located on the NikkeiBP+NikkeiBP way sim. I discovered the group and sim location through a post on Networked Performance. The island's work is clearly experimental but it is interesting to see what people have come up with to date. While some works were a bit confusing, I think this was more the result of project overlap and crowding than the clarity of the builds themselves. I was able to recognize some responsive elements such as proximity and tracking scripts, and most were utilized in a fairly straighforward manner. Still, it's worth the visit as this group seem to take a different approach than most of the other sims I have had the opportunity to visit. Here is a brief (rough) clip I made on one of the more compelling projects.

The build consists of panoramic 2D still images which collide and ricochet within a surrounding panoramic image (also a 2D still). As the avatar navigates within the surrounding space they have the ability to touch a central portion of the floor within one of the individual floating spaces. Touching the floor situates the avatar within that particular room which provides the opportunity to examine the entirety of the RL panoramic image. This seems to invoke the concept of 'compound space' as the visitor has the ability to essentialy 'jump' between physical (although static) locations through the medium of virtual space.

As the virtual has enabled communication between physical spaces for quite some time, this build becomes an interesting metaphor for the spatial/informational relationships between (physical <--> physical) and (physical <--> virtual) spaces. While this project is more a study of the possibilities of the 2D image within virtual space, a natural next step for this build might be to incorporate live video feeds into the RL spatial pockets (for example 360 degree panoramic room cameras that are directly manipulated by the avater inhabiting that particular spatial pocket). This might result in a powerful new way to experience physical spaces through Second Life and other related virtual media.